TELEGRAM AND DECLARATION ON KIDNAPPING OF BISHOP IN COLOMBIA

VATICAN CITY, NOV 13, 2002 (VIS) - Yesterday afternoon a telegram in the Pope's name from Cardinal Angelo Sodano, secretary of State, was made public on the kidnapping of Bishop Enrique Jimenez Carvajal of Zipaquira and Fr. Desiderio Orjuela on November 11 in Colombia. The bishop is president of the Latin American Episcopal Council (CELAM). The telegram was sent to Cardinal Pedro Rubiano Saenz, archbishop of Bogota and president of the Episcopal Conference of Colombia.

The Holy Father, says the telegram, "wishes to convey to the bishops of Colombia his intense participation in the pain that this act produces, together with an ardent message of encouragement to all the pastors and ministers of the Church, so that they continue their service to the Gospel and to the people of God in Colombia with generosity, despite difficulties and sorrows, working tirelessly to achieve peace, so longed-for, in the country.

"While he asks the Lord to make those responsible reconsider their actions and release the kidnapped and abandon all forms of violence, His Holiness expresses in these sad circumstances his special closeness to the Latin American episcopate, and especially to the pastors and faithful of Colombia, at the same time imparting the apostolic blessing upon them as a sign of grace and renewed hope."

In addition, the presidency of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America made public a declaration which condemns the kidnapping:

"While rejecting this inhuman act, in Christian solidarity, full communion of prayers and ecclesiastical sentiments with CELAM, with the episcopate and with the whole Church in Colombia, this Pontifical Commission makes an energetic appeal from the Vatican that those responsible for such an execrable act might respect life, liberty, human dignity and the ministry of the distinguished member of the Latin American hierarchy and of the priest, and free them immediately. This is what we wish for and implore, asking God that Colombia may achieve the peace and reconciliation that it so needs and longs for."

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